96% Spam, 4% Ham

Don’t celebrate Battlemaster because a lot of people don’t PvP, which is unfair on them and might discourage them from entering the Battlegrounds. Hell, even those that do love Battlegrounds might get discouraged when you provide them with a role model and encouragement.

No Safety Dance!

Don’t celebrate raiding achievements, because some people don’t raid, and many of those that do raid, can’t dance. We don’t want them being discouraged from participating in something they aren’t trying to achieve.

No Fishing!

No fishing, because we all know everyone hates fishing. Let’s just stop there.

No Level 10!

No leveling, because some people don’t want to level, they want to roleplay. Celebrating leveling achievements puts undue pressure on people that never intended to reach max level. No, they wanted to roleplay and now I have spoilt it by forcing them to reach for max level, raid, BG and whatever else it is that people do when they reach max level. (What do people do when they reach max level?)

No naked Gnomes!

No naked Gnomes because:

No one will ever be as well proportioned (with extra serves in some places), nor smexy, nor downright charming as Gnomeaggedon

You have to be a Mage to be able to service all your adoring fans

I mean that excludes an entire faction.. not to mention the inferior Alliance races… nope..if you aren’t rolling a Gnome Mage, go play SWTOR.

Fuck Charity and Awareness!

No writing awareness posts especially if they are linked to charities. That would like raise awareness, get people thinking, save lives, raise money, save lives… and for god sake, DON’T GET LINKED BY WOWINSIDER, because that would raise awareness with thousands of people, and god knows we want all those people with mental illness, and their loved ones to go die in a fire!

I loved you well Megan... better than Jong!

And for crying out loud… NO LINKING TO FRIENDS who share a common spirit for your blog topics. We all know that is just gratuitous linking just so you can watch your hit counter rise by one or two a day, for a couple of days.

Don’t do it… you might make life long friends around the world.

Friends that leave you heartbroken for days when they give up blogging.

Friends that inspire you to write one more post, write one better post, hell they might inspire you to write ONE POST.

Now, if I was to include those kind of phrases in my posts, then my stats would truly go through the roof… Ohh look at that…

Big numbers mean jack shit!

I mean, it isn’t like I write posts that people want to read… not like I would take the time to research and write a series of posts that people wanted to read, not like they still want to read them even though they are 3 years out of date.

If I did, then I guess that would be my fault for not writing nice posts, great pieces of literary work.

Hell, I got 51% as my final high school english result.

You know what I did.. I went out and celebrated like I had no intention of living until 18. I got 51%… even my teacher was dancing for joy… because let’s face it, we thought I’d be lucky to get out of high school in 3 final years, let alone get into university after one attempt.

Who the hell would have thought I would have gone on to write over 800 blog posts.

Who would have thought I would write something, anything, that some one, let alone more than one, would enjoy reading.

I started writing because I was better than Larisa

Yeah.. me, better than a blogger writing in a second language.

Apparently by day 3, when I started post number 3 with this…

Yep, it’s only day 3 and it looks like I am scratching for things to write about.

That was the beginning of a beautiful long lasting friendship – but I didn’t know it then.

Of course she is a significantly better writer than me.

She was receiving significantly more subscriptions and page views that me (with the exception of the odd spike maybe).

You think I was envious?

Hell yeah!

But I never let that stand in the way of our friendship.

I never let that get me down, on the contrary, it encouraged me to write and write and write.

I engaged in my beloved WoW blogging community. I sang with them, I sparred with them, I wrote with them, I invaded their personal blog spaces, I promoted their blogs, especially the new ones… Larisa and I were constantly on the lookout for new bloggers to bring them to the communities attention.

Yes occasionally I heard about the gold bloggers and their 35 million subscriptions and their 2 million view per day… did I give a shit?

Why the hell would I?

I was, and am, here to write for myself 1st, and my community 2nd.

Engaged

7,104 comments… close to 1/2 of those are mine.

I strive to respond to every comment that gets written on my blog, because those people who read my bullshit are very important to me.

I don’t always succeed, I certainly don’t keep up with other bloggers these days… but then that is why it is important to be engaged with the community. If I see a pingback to someone I do read, if I see a link(love) from someone I read, I will follow that link. I hunger for good writing, so if someone I love and respect as a writer identifies someone they love and respect, I am going to have a look.

I am only back writing because two people continued to engage with me long after I had subconsciously given up writing. One of those is my most loyal of readers, Prelimar, the other is Big Bear Butt. Both contacted me to ensure I was OK.

They are not the acts of people that read a page hit hunter. They are the acts of people that know I care about what gets written and they would be satisfied with the smell of an oily rag.

What the hell did I write?

I wrote a bunch of Warlock (Pfft) twinking guides. They weren’t to seek page hits, they were to consolidate my planning and execution of my goal. I considered that if it took me months to collate the information, then some one might appreciate it all in one place.

I wrote a stupid April Fools post.. even the title is stupid… 9,960 reads worth of stupid… should I feel bad?

I wrote a stupid post about stupid Drop Bears and Gnomes… my fault that there are people that want to know what the worlds most dangerous creature is (and I stand by the fact that it’s a Gnome Mage)?

OMG, I have 4,567 reads of my blog roll… How freaking shameless of me to half arsedly maintain a list of the bloggers of the community that would have benefited by getting read when they possibly wouldn’t have for any other reason!

Ohh yeah.. and 2,566 people that cared that I cared about Warlock souls… even though all they wanted to do was kill Mages.

But seriously, the worst crime committed of all… I caught the eye of WoW Insider, on several occasions, the last of which was my completely shameless, completely self serving, action of suggesting WoWInsider might like to follow up on the (last count – and I know there are more that are still joining in) 263 Blogs that were tagged.

The other mistake I made

The other mistake I made was making friends and engaging in the community.

No I don’t know why Rohan has linked to me since basically day one. I don’t know why I continue to get hits from Blessing of Kings, but I do.

I know why I get referrals from the others though, because I engage in the community.

Is it a mark of my success as a blogger

FUCK YEAH!

Does it invalidate any other bloggers that aren’t getting the referrals?

OF COURSE NOT!

But don’t come bitching to me about how your 99% university english is getting ignored if you don’t engage in the community… what do you want us to do.. write your posts for you and the *shock horror* do the forbidden link to you?

Do referrals really matter?

Yes and No.

Over 4 years, BBB has sent 2,582 readers to me.. of which probably 2,000 are himself so he can hit *refresh* *refresh* *refresh*.

2,582 readers… if you ever wanted evidence that it doesn’t matter how big a blogger it is that refers to you, then there it is. 2,582 pages views… after that, I stood or fell on my own.

I’m still standing baby!

What matters, if you really want your posts to be read (and let’s get honest now… the only reason you would cry about someone else’s page hits, is because that is what you crave, not writing quality posts, not looking after your 15 readers.. you want the page hits) is two things.

Write good shit (or at least shit that people want to consume)

Get noticed.. and yes, that may involve making friends with people… god forbid you make friends with people and get page views!

Pull your finger out!

Seriously.. what the hell is your problem?

OMG some people will be intimidated and stop writing because they see you have people that WANT to read you

You think I started the Sixth Meme so I could get Page hits?

You think I asked WoW Insider to write an article about all the bloggers in the community participating the meme SO I COULD GET PAGE HITS?

Seriously… go have a good look at yourself in the mirror and decide if you are the solution, or the problem.

Good chance that by the time you read this post I will have reached 500,000 page views

Yes, 127,317+ of them are spammers, trying to get a link on a post that people are reading.

THAT PEOPLE ARE READING!

Congratulations!

Congratulations Big Bear Butt

Congratulations Big Bear Butt on 2,000,000+ page views, I can only dream that one day (with the 500k spam included) I have had the opportunity to expose my Gnome parts and writing to that many people.

You are a long standing hero of the WoW blogging community, and no one should take your achievement away from you.

If I had a party and some wowser caused me to call it off, I would be pissed… in fact that is part of the reason for this post… it is my party, it is our party, and I will write what and if I want to!

Congratulations Cynwise

Congratulations Cynwise on your 10^6 page views, you are a truly awesome blogger who has stretched yourself across multiple blogs and really achieved amazing writing and friendships within the WoW Blogosphere. You deserve many more, and I promise I will hit refresh on your pages more often, cause I can’t stand the wait between posts, nor the excellent comments your garner from the community.

Congratu-Fucking-lations to me

If Stephen Fry likes to insert a word inside a word, then so do I.

Now… START WRITING THE HATE POSTS!

Folks, let’s be clear about one thing…

If there is a need for hate to flow, let it flow to ME.

Oestrus started an intelligent discussion on a worthwhile topic, which I have responded to in the manner to which I have become accustomed, but there is not need for others to stoop to my level.

Let’s keep it civil… well more level than a 40 something year old Gnome can.

Did someone say flow chart? You won’t believe this but I already have one on this topic. But unlike gnomey I don’t like hate mail, I am the passive type. I had my quiet say and got a bear hug and I am all good now.

Pingback would have worked if it had been a few weeks earlier, but I’ve since closed up shop on my blog. Either way, it’s a great read and I’m sorry to say that I’ll be adding to the page views for some time to come now!

There is a lot more to Oestrus’ post and while I appreciate the point of view, I think (and it is only my opinion) it is misguided.

– If you don’t want to be read, leave your blog private.
– If you want to be read by a few select people, then invite them to your private blog.
– If you want to be read by more, then you need to seek the readers.

It is pointless being the best author in the world if no one reads your posts (unless it is purely for self fulfillment, in which case who cares).

It is, I believe, mean spirited to deny people the opportunity to “brag” (or as I would put it, celebrate) about one’s successes – in whatever form they may take.

Page views aren’t THE measure of success, nor do they in themselves provide enough fulfillment to encourage a blogger to continue writing.

They are A measure of success, if in no other way than a measure of traffic to a blog.

I don’t write for the page views, I didn’t write this post for the page views, I didn’t fill my about page with stats for page views (that is a “standard request” of TwistedNether to give some indication of one’s blogging history). I write because I like to express myself, whether anyone reads or not.

I wanted to write a post about how there was a level of traffic that has come to this blog, contrary to any beginning or ongoing expectations. A few days ago I felt I was being denied the ability to do so, to write what I want to write, to express myself in a way I want to express myself.

After a few days of tussling with this I came to the conclusion that this is my space, no one is being forced to deliver page views, or read my blog.

Likewise I felt that the alternate view needed to be presented, so those that do derive some measure of satisfaction of from their stats don’t feel prohibited from expressing themselves.

I would rather encourage new bloggers by supporting them, delivering page views, than by condemning people that have written posts, that have been fortunate enough to have those posts read by a larger population.

Whatever the case, whatever people think of my writing style (some may view it as offensive, aggressive, vulgar… whatever, it’s my blogging voice and no aggression is truly directed at O), it is an age old blogging conundrum… do page views, or the lack of them, give any indication of quality, or are they just a measure of the number of people that have the opportunity to experience your writing style?

Klep, you have been reading me for long enough to know my blogging voice.

Is this really any different to the other 800 odd posts?

Personally I would prefer to think of it as an outstanding display of arrogance, or maybe even confidence.

I write to write.
People read to read.
People may no longer read, but that doesn’t mean that I will no longer write.

Whether I get 100 views a day, or 0 views a day. Whether I have lost one reader, lost 100 readers or even gained a reader, I have written what I wanted to write, in my own voice, without fear that someone, somewhere, might feel that I am astoundingly arrogant.

I THOUGHT I knew your voice, but this post is different. This is just blatant pandering to the Fatass Bear crowd. Perhaps trying to grab a few more readers, is that it? Well great job! It’s not working yet because once I am done typing this comment and posting it, and maybe refreshing a few times to check for replies, and maybe the next post just to see if you’ve gotten the message, I am done with your amalgamation of arrogance.

Oh you know my voice. This is the same voice that railed against RealID, that curses Warlocks for breakfast, that hunts down blog scrapers, that abuses account hackers, that some would say hates the Horde even though I have several Horde characters myself.

It is the voice of Gnomeaggedon. This time I suspect I have hit a nerve or spoken of a friend in a way you find abhorant.

That’s all good. Life is fluid and I fully support you in your disdain for me, even though the feeling isn’t mutual.

As for Panda’ing to a fat arse bear, this post isn’t about him, it’s about me and my opinion of cottonwool-wrapping bloggers while denying other bloggers their right to write what they want.

I was pissed that Bear felt the need to rewrite his post to pander to some emotionally fragile ethos of blogging. He made his choice, which was to be supportive of those with special needs.

I on the other hand found myself damned (by a sector of the blogging community) if I did and damned (by my desire to share an achievement of which you have been a part) if I don’t.

I chose to share my achievement and I chose to wrap it in a commentary of what I beleive is to be wrong with O’s view.

I also chose to celebrate BBB’s and Cynwise’s achievement with my readers, as many of them are also familiar with these bloggers and would possibly like to share the celebration with them.

As for page views… that paragraph of self generated senseless spam in the midst of the post has generated more hits. I could have just posted that and everyone would be ignorant but happy.

One of the issues with the “Shameless” post is that it is intentionally non (or multi) directional while taking a backward swipe at a couple of good bloggers, who also happen to be good writers – yet takes the cowardly approach of not directly addressing them.

It is no longer a “hidden” post that enables a group of back slappers to feel good about themselves, it is open for general view and discussin.

Piss on my character all you like, I don’t particularly care. At least I am direct about my disagreement as you, at least, are being to me.

You know where the door is, you are welcome to use it any time either going or coming.

Ok correct me if I’m wrong… but I think there might have been something lost here? Maybe because I know Klep and his ways, but I honestly read his comments as being his typical self… basically supporting your point of view and the post (and making a point for the other said post) but doing it all in a sarcastic way.

by sweet Khadgar’s crumb-laden beard — you mentioned ME as being one of your most faithful readers??
:’ )

i mean, yes, i read every word you put to pixels, and i prod you via twitter when we haven’t heard from you in awhile, but i do it because:

1) you are passionate about your game, be it PvP, PvE, being a mage, or whatever; i love players who are and who don’t mind ignoring the haters.

2) you are funny as hell; enough said.

3) you are as kind and deeply caring as hell — about the game and things going on in your own life, and you are fearless when talking about either of them. i find it admirable.

4) you give really good advice about PvP, something i’ve long sucked at;

and

5) because i never ever know what to expect from your next post.

i’m always impressed with the amount of work that goes into your posts, too — so many screencaps, and you set up such great shots just to make a point. a lot of care goes into your posts, and i appreciate all you do. in short, i feel you are one of the friends i’ve made in the years i’ve played this game, and we’ve never spoken or met (yet? maybe when battletags happen….) — so, thanks, Gnomey, and don’t let the bastards get you down.

I *like* numbers posts and achievement posts and such. I like to share them and I like to read them. If I’ve hit a milestone in hits or readers it’s because of the people that are reading. I want to share that with them, “because of you guys, this is what I have and it means something to me, also – you’re not alone in reading me!” When I see a milestone post being shared it means that I have participated in something bigger than me. I have contributed to someone else’s enjoyment.

Blogging isn’t about bragging (OK, sometimes it can be, you know if I ever end up with a spectral tiger I’m going to brag about that until the cows come home) but it is about sharing. If I’m excited about an achievement or a milestone, I’m going to share it because it’s important to me. I started blogging because I was in awe of the community and connectivity – the conversations that took place across multiple sites and spanned the globe. I never imagined I would still be doing it three years later and can count among my friends people I never would have known (even if they are a gnome, j/k).

If someone is deterred from entering the blogsphere because they don’t feel they can match up to someone else’s hit counter or if they see milestones and celebrations as competition instead of inspiration then blogging may not be the appropriate venue for them to share in.

Yes there is definitely some support for O’s side of things, but to be honest I’m not worried.

I’m all for not bragging, but likewise I don’t beleive that “achievement self-censorship” is the solution.

The solution is working to ensure that those that want to be read while ignoring page hits get the reads, while those that consider stats to be an integral part of blogging feel comfortable in sharing their achievements.

I’m still very torn on this. I tried to leave this alone to some extent, because bloggers become friends, and it is a very human trait to want to defend your friends vehemently, right or wrong, when you see them attacked.

One of the most passive-aggressive ways of showing your support of a friend is simply to support them emotionally, reassuring them that they are right and just and it’s those mean old baddies that just don’t get it, and aren’t they all asshats.

That is one reason I just wish I’d kept my mouth shut in the first place, but I overreacted, and my overreaction has now inspired good friends to take up arms.

Gnomer writes from the gut, and I certainly have no control over that and probably damn little influence, and to my way of thinking his post kept the irreverent feel that he has always had. But it’s still a blunt “I think this was bullshit”, and that is an attack that someone’s friends will justly want to defend against.

I re-read this, and this came across almost as a slam on Gnomer, and I don’t mean that. He isn’t mindlessly dittoing me, he had his own very strong feelings on this, and in private emails basically told me to get my big butt out of his business, he had his own post to write.

What I’m talking about is when someone tells a friend they are right, completely right, you tell it, just to reassure their friend and support them and give them confidence and encouragement that they were in the right… when other people have made valid points that show that perhaps the two people are at exagerrated extremes, and we could have met in the middle on this… until everyone started bunkering down and defending territory so as not to look weak in the face of the ‘enemy’, when there were never any enemies in the first place, just perhaps a misunderstanding that someone (cough bear cough cough) hideously overreacted to.

Ha, no it didn’t take me 4 days to write the post, it took me 4 days to calm down enough to write a semi-literate post that wasn’t just a page of “fuck, fuck,fuck,fuck…”.

It tend to write from my heart rather than my mind. Sometimes that results in a joyous post, othertimes… well let’s just say the frustration shines through.

A large portion of that 4 days was (as unbelievable as it may seem from this post) considering the effect on O, but in the end I realized that it was hurting me and would continue to for as long as I held it in.

I survived an abusive marriage, where a portion of the abuse was the daily, hourly, threat of suicide if I didn’t accept my ex’s terms of reference. Those terms were warped due to mental illness, so I wore it until I was nearly in the grave myself.

So, I guess I have learned now that it’s “better out than in”. That philosophy has kept me alive, my awesome son alive, and continues to keep my ex alive (that is another story, touched on in my Movember posts).

It’s not worth it to accept, or even pretend, to ignore other peoples values when they are imposed upon your life, it can kill you, if only a little inside.

We may agree to disagree in the end, that isn’t the worst result, but accepting or internalizing with out expressing your opposition just leaves a shadow on your soul.

I am also glad you decided to do the post. I thought your post was a very witty and amusing post on your take on the subject.

I do think that some of the “intention” or “feel” we may take away from a post is colored by the past relationship we have with the writer. I’ve probably read very similar posts celebrating achievements or page views or whatever from different writers and my take on whether it was celebratory or grandstanding were probably colored some by the opinion i’ve already made of the writer from previous posts.

As you mentioned in another post, I think having different opinions is what makes the blogosphere interesting. I do think her post is well written and I definitely understand some of what she was saying.

That said, what I can not accept is letting different opinions fall into the dirty ditch of low jabs and name calling, specifically on twitter. So its ok for her to disagree and post her views but not for others? There is no need to get into the type of comments she made. And honestly I have no respect for it.

I would have posted this comment on her post but past history tells me comments that don’t agree with her don’t get published.

Navi’s post is probably superior to mine, but then this one is written with my voice, my thoughts and obviously my emotions.

Bear is correct in an earlier comment.. there is a common ground and neither O’s post nor mine are in the middle, they are extremes.

People can say what they want here.. I think the only comments I have ever deleted have been spam or my own… my own purely because I have moments of clicking idiocy where post looks the same as delete.

edit: I guess the other thing is, you can’t express an opinion on the net without the expectation it will be challenged. Opinions are good, diverse opinions are better. If you raise an opinion then get cranky when someone questions it… well I wouldn’t be so worried about “bragging posts” they are the least of your problems.

Hmmm….I don’t disagree with celebrating one’s own successes, still this article or rather the forcefulness of it surprised me a little.

maybe I read Oestrus’ post very differently, but I believe it was more on the subject of “how” some people advertise hits or rather their significance and why it’s important not to lose sight of the joy of writing itself, no matter your numbers. which believe it or not, can be a problem for more anxious or insecure writers. sure, you can blame them for just not “having what it takes”, or you can have some more empathy than that. I thought her post was mostly addressed at them or rather in their favour, not against celebrating successes. but then it seems quite a few other bloggers felt attacked due to prior articles of their own – a sidestory I am luckily entirely unaware of. pity though, that some essentially good points got entirely lost in your follow-up.

…and I for one also always respected Larísa because she was so humble.

I understood the importance of not losing sight of the joy of writing itself component of her post, but then I also understood that bloggers that hadn’t posted gloating, bragging posts were the inspiration of the dark side.

Under other circumstances I would have written something small, probably a footnote to another post, but I became angry that even that would have been bragging and over the top. After all, just my about page makes me the epitome of all that is wrong with discussion stats, let alone thanking my readers for following my posts and supporting through some rough times.

I don’t want people to be anxious, nor feel pressure to gain a bigger audience or have to cater to them, but likewise I don’t want a blogger that wants to celebrate a milestone, whether hits, posts, time period, comments, whatever to feel they have to celebrate in silence.

and yes, humility is a wonderful quality of Jessica, as is the ability to put up with a horrid person like me.

Well done. A brilliant post. Theres nothing wrong with celebrating success. I like to show off pictures of my gorgeous baby daughter. I told everyone when I got a new job. Those are things I achieved and I wanted to share them. I cannot understand how your success as a blogger is any different? Its not the ONLY measure of success, but it is a measure of success if your intention is to be read.

Personally I don’t buy into the ‘I only blog for myself’ stuff. Yes writing can be cathartic, enjoyable and many other things that benefit only the writer, but if you wanted to write only for your own benefit, then why do it in public? If you publish your writing it is because you want someone to read it. It might be that you want to make connections with people, or that you want to receive feedback, or that you want to educate. But the very point of a blog is to put your writing into a public space. Page hits are, in part, and with caveats, a measure of your success at interacting with other people via your blog if that is what you set out to do.

I can also understand why you were angry enough to post this. I cannot understand how it is unacceptable for you to advertise your hits and thank your readers, but it is acceptable for Oestrus to post something that deliberately attacks other members of the blogging community for achieving success by their own measures!

From the moment this post started moving from my heart to my mind I intended to have one more crossed-out achievement.

It was to be a picture of Odin.

How can any man take credit for a child.

1 sperm… No 9 uncomfortable months… No hours of painful childbirth (and in Odins case emergency caeser as both mother and child were about to die), no chaffed and bitten nipples. Just the odd dirty nappy after the fact.

I’d like to see someone say I (or any man) can’t take credit for their child, I doubt this post would come close the the expletive force. Yet it would still recognize the *part* played in the achievement, rather than taking full credit.

I also thank you for your post. It bothered me when I saw people on Oestrus’s blog all agreeing–it seemed to me–that it was arrogant and mean AND KILLS BUNNIES to dare celebrate anything you’re proud of, anywhere that someone might see.